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Cloud Firestore: A New Document Database for Apps

firebase.googleblog.com

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Re: Cloud Firestore: A New Document Database for Apps

#81

Post by novaleaf »

jamest wrote: post #2

[Firebase founder] This new database has been in the works for 2.5 years, since shortly after we joined Google. It was developed in close collaboration with the Cloud Datastore[1] team, and uses Google’s core database infrastructure. We built it because we know it can be challenging to build complex apps with our original database -- Firebase Realtime Database -- where we optimized for ease-of-use & real-time sync ov…

glad you mentioned Cloud Datastore. It seems that Firestore supersedes Datastore and Firebase. Is that correct? Any comparisons of Firestore vs Datastore?

Re: Cloud Firestore: A New Document Database for Apps

#82

Post by cobookman »

stefano wrote: post #75

I don't like this trend of creating new closed source database systems that only exist on a single cloud provider. Your data is your most valuable asset, and by using this you're locking it inside Google servers. If they decide five years from now to discontinue it, or to raise the pricing 10x, you're screwed. Are most developers only working on short term projects? Why would you put yourself in such a situation inst…

> Your data is your most valuable asset, and by using this you're locking it inside Google servers. If they decide five years from now to discontinue it, or to raise the pricing 10x, you're screwed.

You'd be able to move your data off of firestore. And there's legal business contracts around pricing. Google can't just raise pricing 10x overnight.

Re: Cloud Firestore: A New Document Database for Apps

#83

Post by mjw1007 »

jamest wrote: post #2

[Firebase founder] This new database has been in the works for 2.5 years, since shortly after we joined Google. It was developed in close collaboration with the Cloud Datastore[1] team, and uses Google’s core database infrastructure. We built it because we know it can be challenging to build complex apps with our original database -- Firebase Realtime Database -- where we optimized for ease-of-use & real-time sync ov…

Can you provide anything to reassure potential users that this will still exist in five or ten years time?

Re: Cloud Firestore: A New Document Database for Apps

#84

Post by stefano »

pritambarhate wrote: post #57

Does any of you feel cheated by Google? Rather than improving the existing product and providing backward compatibility, Google has chosen to build a new product with its own proprietary API. I have a client who has invested significant amount time and money in Firebase Realtime Database. Now with this move, I am not sure if Google will support Firebase Realtime Database for next 5 years. So a full rewrite might be n…

This is a very reasonable comment, why is it downvoted so heavily?

Re: Cloud Firestore: A New Document Database for Apps

#85

Post by afro88 »

adufetel wrote: post #32
dotmanish wrote: post #26

What happens to "Backups" with Firestore? (Firestore console doesn't have a Backups tab)

Thanks for the feedback. We don't have backups for Cloud Firestore yet, but this will be available down the road.

What are our options until this is available? Will built in backups be available once you're out of beta, or further down the road?

Re: Cloud Firestore: A New Document Database for Apps

#86

Post by habosa »

novaleaf wrote: post #81
jamest wrote: post #2

[Firebase founder] This new database has been in the works for 2.5 years, since shortly after we joined Google. It was developed in close collaboration with the Cloud Datastore[1] team, and uses Google’s core database infrastructure. We built it because we know it can be challenging to build complex apps with our original database -- Firebase Realtime Database -- where we optimized for ease-of-use & real-time sync ov…

glad you mentioned Cloud Datastore. It seems that Firestore supersedes Datastore and Firebase. Is that correct? Any comparisons of Firestore vs Datastore?

It does not "supersede" Datastore or Firebase Realtime Database, neither of those products are going anywhere.

This is a totally new product that builds on what we learned from those two products, sharing some of the best features of each and bringing in some totally new things as well.

All three are (in my opinion) great choices for building a new app today so make sure you evaluate all options.

Re: Cloud Firestore: A New Document Database for Apps

#87

Post by stefano »

cobookman wrote: post #82
stefano wrote: post #75

I don't like this trend of creating new closed source database systems that only exist on a single cloud provider. Your data is your most valuable asset, and by using this you're locking it inside Google servers. If they decide five years from now to discontinue it, or to raise the pricing 10x, you're screwed. Are most developers only working on short term projects? Why would you put yourself in such a situation inst…

> Your data is your most valuable asset, and by using this you're locking it inside Google servers. If they decide five years from now to discontinue it, or to raise the pricing 10x, you're screwed. You'd be able to move your data off of firestore. And there's legal business contracts around pricing. Google can't just raise pricing 10x overnight.

Sure, you can move it, but how much code will you need to rewrite? How much effort to convert the data to a new database format? And how much more development time to migrate your data without taking your service down during the migration?

It's a very expensive move that I don't think people consider when choosing this kind of solution.

Re: Cloud Firestore: A New Document Database for Apps

#88

Post by kerryritter »

stefano wrote: post #87
cobookman wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your data is your most valuable asset, and by using this you're locking it inside Google servers. If they decide five years from now to discontinue it, or to raise the pricing 10x, you're screwed. You'd be able to move your data off of firestore. And there's legal business contracts around pricing. Google can't just raise pricing 10x overnight.

Sure, you can move it, but how much code will you need to rewrite? How much effort to convert the data to a new database format? And how much more development time to migrate your data without taking your service down during the migration? It's a very expensive move that I don't think people consider when choosing this kind of solution.

Maybe I'm naive but I think a lot of people consider this, but the benefits of development speed outweigh the risk for a number of cases.

Re: Cloud Firestore: A New Document Database for Apps

#89

Post by revmoo »

habosa wrote: post #86
novaleaf wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

glad you mentioned Cloud Datastore. It seems that Firestore supersedes Datastore and Firebase. Is that correct? Any comparisons of Firestore vs Datastore?

It does not "supersede" Datastore or Firebase Realtime Database, neither of those products are going anywhere. This is a totally new product that builds on what we learned from those two products, sharing some of the best features of each and bringing in some totally new things as well. All three are (in my opinion) great choices for building a new app today so make sure you evaluate all options.

You posted this after two controversial but fair questions has been asked. Please answer them.

Re: Cloud Firestore: A New Document Database for Apps

#90

Post by react4 »

stefano wrote: post #75

I don't like this trend of creating new closed source database systems that only exist on a single cloud provider. Your data is your most valuable asset, and by using this you're locking it inside Google servers. If they decide five years from now to discontinue it, or to raise the pricing 10x, you're screwed. Are most developers only working on short term projects? Why would you put yourself in such a situation inst…

To your point and for precisely this reason, we offer realtime capabilities but on top of the Elasticsearch engine[1]. We also have a cloud native version in preview (that we are actively developing) which addresses deployment flexibility[2][3].

[1] https://appbase.io [2] https://store.docker.com/images/appbaseio [3] https://appbaseio-confidential.github.io/streams

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